Tuesday, May 24, 2016

SWORD AND STAR is the conclusion of a
trilogy I started (with my co-author for LINE AND ORBIT Lisa Soem) over a
decade ago. It's been a long, strange journey and now it's over. It’s not the
first book trilogy I've finished, but it's certainly the closest to my heart.

It's been amazing getting to know this
world and these characters over the course of three books, and it's been even
more amazing getting to share it all with readers. Adam Yuga and Lochlan
d’Bideshi’s story is done, Eva Reyes and Kyle Waverly have found their own
conclusion, Kae and Leila’s part in this tale is over (though you’ll see those
two again in the forthcoming LINEAGE), and I've bid a fond farewell to the
Bideshi seer Nkiruka. Goodbyes are never easy, but when you arrive at a good
one, it's immensely satisfying.

I'm so grateful to everyone who's
traveled with me, and just as grateful to the people coming to the story now.
Whatever category you fall into, I hope you'll find this final volume a fitting
end.

Three months after a brutal battle at
Peris, Adam Yuga, Lochlan D’Bideshi, and their rebel fleet are embroiled in a
new conflict. But things aren’t going well. Even with Lock’s homeship, Ashwina,
at the head of the fleet, the Protectorate forces are adapting to their
tactics. Before long, two devastating blows send the ragtag rebels on the run.
But the greatest threat may come from within.

Since the battle at Peris, Protectorate
loyalist Isaac Sinder’s determination to eliminate the rebel fleet has only intensified—along
with his ambition. The Protectorate is decaying, and it’s clear to Isaac that
only he can save it, by any means necessary.

As the situation worsens for the rebels,
the strain begins to tell on everyone. But more than exhaustion grows within
Adam. Something alien has started to change him. Lochlan fights to hold on, but
even he may not be able to follow Adam down the dark road ahead.

As Isaac’s obsession turns to insanity,
it becomes evident that more sinister plans than his are at work. Bound
together by threads of fate and chance, Adam and Lochlan turn their eyes toward
a future that may tear them apart—if they’re lucky enough to survive it at all.

Sometimes he was almost afraid. A great deal of the time he was certain Lochlan was.

But he had learned that there was only so much he could do about their threatening fear. Only so much of himself he could spare for that, for worry. Hadn’t they long ago passed the point of no return? If there was an event horizon, hadn’t they crossed it? Blown over it like a bullet, like the first shot fired in a storm of them.

Because it was that. It was exactly that. Bullets, shooting, and gone so far that there could never be any turning back.

He could only ever go forward now. The same was true for all of them.

So Adam went wandering through the night that went on forever.

He saw a great deal. Much of it made little sense to him. Much more made no sense at all. But he had grown comfortable with nonsense, as one grows comfortable with a change in gravity, in light, in temperature. You grow accustomed. You acclimate. You adapt.

From his conception Adam had been carefully engineered to be strong in body and in mind, impervious to illnesses both chronic and acute, physically attractive within a rigidly defined set of standards—and adaptable. On the Plain of Heaven, things had been changed inside him, other things stripped away, and now his reflexes weren’t what they once were, his strength was no longer so reliable, and he was more easily weakened than he had before. So many small alterations, so many tiny reorderings and reorganizations. So much movement.

Things had been taken from him. But other things had been given to him. And above all else he had retained the ability to adapt.

He knew how life forms evolved. He knew what time did to them, how it ravaged. How it could be cruel. He knew that the life that survived was the life that could adapt.

As he wandered through the dark and among the traveling stars, he meditated on these things. Somewhere distant, his body rested aboard Ashwina: massive Ashwina, gentle Ashwina, Ashwina the Bideshi homeship and Ashwina the cradle of his first rebirth, Ashwina his adopted home. If he had a home anymore.

Ashwina the machine of war.

He turned and looked back at it, hanging there in sub-slipstream, a little cloud of smaller ships drifting around it like a swarm of flies around some great beast, glittering in starlight. He beheld their fleet, such as it was—all scavenged, many of the ships stolen, some in poor repair, some half-built from the salvaged components of multiple others. He surveyed it with cool detachment, evaluating, briefly seeing it through the eyes of another, an outsider. No one would consider it impressive. No one would consider it a threat, not against any significant military force. No one would consider it formidable, not even with Ashwina’s enormous bulk at its center.

Like this, Adam was bodiless. He was consciousness alone. But as he thought these things, he smiled.

It was a tight smile, almost grim. He could take no joy in this conflict they were now part of. It was his doing—his among others—and he knew it, accepted it.

Regretted it. Not that it had happened. But that it had been necessary.

In three months, it was as if he had aged three decades.

To read the entire excerpt, learn more about the Author or the series, visit Riptide!

Sunny Moraine’s short fiction has
appeared in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Nightmare, Lightspeed, Long
Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, and multiple
Year’s Best collections, among other places. They are also responsible for the
novels Line and Orbit (cowritten with Lisa Soem), Labyrinthian,
and the Casting the Bones trilogy, as well as A Brief History of the
Future: collected essays. In addition to authoring, Sunny is a doctoral
candidate in sociology and a sometimes college instructor; that last may or may
not have been a good move on the part of their department. They unfortunately
live just outside Washington DC in a creepy house with two cats and a very
long-suffering husband.

To
celebrate the release of Sword and Star,
Sunny is giving away a signed copy of the book and a handmade
necklace. Leave a comment to enter the contest.
Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on May 28, 2016. Contest is NOT
restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your
contact info!

Be sure to leave a comment to be entered into the TTC Books and more monthly comment giveaway. EVERY comment that is relevant to the specific post will be entered. Prizes include various gift cards and swag donated by Publishers, Authors and blog Owner. REMEMBER TO LEAVE YOUR CONTACT INFO! How else will I notify you if you win?